Documents and electronic materials

Data were obtained from documents and electronic cassettes and compact discs. Libraries of the department of religious studies of the Lagos State University, Oto-Ijanikin, and Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, were used to access relevant data on the histories, developments and expansion of Aladura churches from published books, journals, and undergraduate and graduate theses. These have helped in the examination and description of historical facts about the churches in the pre-new Pentecostal and new Pentecostal eras. Some publications of the churches were also obtained. These to a great extent provided the researcher with rich data about the phenomenon being studied in the three churches. Church journals, almanac, Sunday school reader, liturgical and doctrinal books, constitution, financial regulations, and published

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reports provided great insights into the dynamics of the churches. The influence of ‘the letter’

could be seen in the number of books and ‘pamphlets’, which individual members wrote and published. Notable among the authors whose works were accessed are the Primate of the church of the Lord Aladura, Rufus Ositelu, the Baba Aladura Samuel Abidoye of the Cherubim and Seraphim movement church, Bishop Tunde Gbogboade of TCLA, and Barrister Emmanuel Bada. The personal assistant to Special Apostle Gabriel Fakeye provided an audio cassette, which contained some information about the beginning of the church and its rise to fame. The General Secretary of the CCC Emmanuel Adegoke provided video cassettes that contained an amissal session and the new categories of ranks and robes in the CCC.

1.5.6 Scope

The study describes and analyses the innovations in organizational structure, rituals and symbols and the strategies of the C&S, TCLA, and CCC churches in Nigeria. The churches are located in Lagos, Ibadan, and Jos and the target members vary in terms of educational attainment, economic empowerment, and rank in the hierarchy of the church. More so, the three churches in the three different cities will offer a variety of data on similar issues and in different locations. Three capital cities were chosen because they are the administrative headquarters of their respective local government areas with a number of towns and villages.

The presence of a great number of different religious groups, their regional or district administrative headquarters, coupled with their vibrant social and religious activities, provide a platform for examining and describing how the selected churches are coping with the challenge of religious pluralism, competition, and increasing influence of modernity.

Lagos is a fast growing megacity with diverse and rapid population growth due to industrialization that is made possible by increasing number of indigenous and multinational industries and heavy rural-urban migration particularly from different parts of Nigeria.

Drawing on the 2006 Nigerian population census, Lagos has the highest population of nine million and the highest population density of two thousand six hundred and seven (NPC 2010). It is a megacity that is known for its highest presence of different indigenous and foreign religious groups. The Cherubim and Seraphim was officially inaugurated in Lagos in 1925. The Celestial Church of Christ, though began in Porto Novo in 1947, was introduced into Lagos in 1950 and was nurtured to growth and expansion there. The TCLA though began in Ogere in 1930, it is a few kilometers from Lagos where it was nurtured to growth and expansion. Lagos is a city known for its religious enterprise and upsurge of Pentecostal Christianity. It is also known for its vibrant but non-violent proselytization among different major and minor religious groups. Studying Aladura Christianity in this megacity will provide

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the context for investigating changes in organizational behavior of the Aladura churches in a highly competitive and dynamic religious environment.

Ibadan is chosen because it is one of the cultural capital cities of the Yoruba where Yoruba traditional religion demonstrates strong resilience in its encounters with Islam, Christianity and other religions. Ibadan is a cosmopolitan city where John Peel and Robert Mitchell conducted their previous studies on Aladura churches. It is the capital of the defunct Western Region, which played and continues to play host to different Yoruba sub-groups and other ethnic groups across the country. Doing a research on the Aladura in this context will provide an update on the classical study, which previous scholars of religion did in the ancient, but fast modernizing city.

The third study area is Jos, a cosmopolitan city in central Nigeria that was not included in the previous major study on Aladura Christianity in the country. The city is the capital of plateau state and hosts indigenes drawn from different parts of the state who are mostly Christians, and migrant ethnic groups from different parts of Nigeria. The city is also known for its host to the world headquarters of the Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN), mainline churches, and increasing number of new Pentecostal Churches. The incessant ethno-religious crises in Jos city between the indigent groups who are mostly Christians and the Hausa-Fulani migrants who are largely Muslims have redefined the settlement pattern of the city such that residents can be located in different parts of the city along ethno-religious line. This religious geography has compelled various religious organizations to relocate to safe havens and initiate programmes and strategies for coping with the competitive religious landscape and uncertainties that characterize the interaction of different religious groups in the religiously volatile city.

46 Chapter Two

Aladura and Religious Landscape 2.0 Introduction

The Aladura churches emerged and operate among other religious organizations and respond in diverse ways to the pluralistic religious environment in Nigeria. This chapter presents the nature of Nigeria’s religious environment from the perceptions of informants; from the perspective of observed phenomena; and the data gathered from previous studies. The chapter presents the origin of Aladura; it describes the pluralistic nature of Nigeria’s religious landscape; the regulation of the religious market, the proliferation and classification of Aladura churches; and the formation of various reconciliation bodies that have been formed to unite the various splinter groups.